Making the case for the right to life of every innocent, from Lake County, Illinois

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Politics

Clinton misleads the audience on abortion, yet again

By Dave AndruskoPro-abortion outlets–Think Progress, Cosmopolitan, etc. –are expressing great delight that last night Hillary Clinton got up on her high horse and lectured CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
Pivoting from a question about the Supreme Court, Clinton sternly
chastised Blitzer, “We’ve not had one question [in the previous eight
debates] about a woman’s right to make her own decisions about
reproductive health care — not one question.” (Amped by a cheering
audience, Clinton moved to high dudgeon, but it was just the usual-usual
and need not bother us here.)

However, as is always the case with the abortion issue and the
slippery former Secretary of State, there was less–far less–there than
met the eye. Even the Washington Post saw through the phoniness.
In a genuinely thorough column [“So Hillary Clinton wants debate
moderators to ask about abortion, all of a sudden?”], Callum Borchers
noted that Clinton had been asked–and thoroughly–by Fox News’ Brett Baier in a prior setting.

So how could Clinton say what she did? Because it was not a “debate,” but at a Town Hall.
“What Clinton actually seems to want are more opportunities to launch
into familiar — and vague — talking points about funding Planned
Parenthood and preserving Roe v. Wade,” Borchers wrote. “And
she wants chances to slam Donald Trump for his recent statement that
women who undergo illegal abortions [in the hypothetical case where
abortion had been outlawed] should face ‘some form of punishment,’ a
position he quickly reversed.”

Read Borchers’ column in its entirety; it is that good.

But the takeaway is not that truth and Clinton yet again ran on
parallel paths. That’s a given. And it’s not just that Clinton wanted to
rouse the rabble with sure-fire applause lines.
It’s that Clinton had been as evasive as ever when Baier pressed for
exactly what her “answers” meant–and that last night she was even less
specific.

Clinton wanted to eat her cake and have it too. Pretend that she
wants to talk about abortion 24/7 but isn’t asked, and then, when she
does talk about abortion, dive into a pool of content-free generalities.
Here’s Borchers’ spot-on conclusion:

But don’t be fooled into thinking
that Clinton is eager to discuss those details. Her response to Baier
and her remarks on Thursday in Brooklyn indicate otherwise.